Qifa Nabki
Ziad Baroud
News and Notes
A few quick things: 1) The Safadi Foundation’s blog (which is good, you should read it) has a useful recap of yesterday’s House Foreign Affairs Middle East Central Asia Subcommittee’s hearing with Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman. Among the highlights, the following question from Chairman Gary Ackerman (who once coordinated with Michel … Continue reading
Lebanon Cleans Up Image in Advance of Record Tourist Season
BEIRUT, Lebanon — With 2 million tourists forecasted to visit Lebanon this year — providing this troubled and cash-strapped Mediterranean country with much needed tax revenue to pay off its enormous $50 billion public debt — government officials are doing their best to clean up Beirut’s reputation as an unstable and dangerous city, in an … Continue reading
Deadline Nears for Lebanese Voter Registration
View from a ’72 Benz C250 series, issue no. 4 “Three quarters of the people who get into my cab think the elections will be called off for ‘security reasons’.” I’m in a taxi, heading from Mar Mikhael to Hamra. “Really?” “Yes. What do you think?” “Me?” I ask, even though there’s no one else … Continue reading
A Nineteenth Sect, or None at All?
The editorial in today’s Daily Star discusses Interior Minister Ziad Baroud’s order authorizing “personnel at his ministry to grant any request to have confessional identity removed from one’s official file at civil registries across the country…” This is a very significant move, yet another feather in the activist minister’s cap. As the editorial goes on … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…